230 Entering Heavenward City

No one caused problems for them as they spent the night at the inn. Although they appeared to be a somewhat wealthy family, a closer look at their clothes deterred the mercenaries in the area from messing with them.

During the night, Hei Gou's Qi level broke into the first layer of the Ordinary Knight rank, with his physical strength remaining unchanged at the fourth layer.

Bai Tianyi had cultivated, absorbing soul power from the surrounding air and refining it into spiritual energy.

Lin Xiao had also spent the night cultivating, but he was not as focused as the other two. He often opened his eyes and stared at Xue Wei curiously.

Xue Wei used that night to refine medicine. He was at the edge of being able to create pills for the Ordinary Knight rank. Although that meant he would be making the semi-useless low-ranked pills, it would still be great practice for Xue Wei's spiritual energy and his pill-making abilities.

And after the low-ranked pills, he could only go up.

He was, however, still unable to make Rainbow Pills. Even One-Color Rainbow Pills required a spiritual energy at the Earth Knight rank, and the Two-Color ones required the fifth layer. Three colors required you to be at the first layer of the Sky Knight rank; four at the fifth layer of the Sky Knight rank, and so forth.

There was still a long way to go for him. But as long as he could make high-ranked pills for Ordinary Knights, it would tremendously improve their financial situation.

"Give me pills! Give me pills!" Xue Wei muttered to himself as he was focusing his spiritual energy to merge the liquids within the cauldron. His complete focus was on these pills, and he even forgot that he was currently pretending to be a woman. His voice was feminine and his clothes were neat. If the concoction ended up exploding, he would need to find another dress.

Xue Wei's complete focus was on these pills. He was always positive that the concoction would succeed, but when it did not, it went completely against his expectations. He would never sense anything prior to the explosion, so it always caught him off guard.

This time, there was no explosion. Instead, a heavy medicinal scent wafted out from the cauldron, followed by thirteen small glistening pills.

Xue Wei snickered when he saw this. He had successfully refined thirteen high-purity Blood Coagulating Pills!

A Blood Coagulating Pill was, as the name suggested, a pill that stopped bleeding and also healed user's wounds. These pills were not of great use to Xue Wei or his friends any longer, but they sold rather well, which was incentive enough for him to make them. Their sole purpose was to be sold.

Lin Xiao noticed that these three people he had found out of nowhere were actually rather good people. Although he had banded up with them due to their similar situations, he had never expected that they would hit it off so easily, and he was astonished by how much hard work these three put into their respective crafts.

There was not any moment where they were not training. It was clear that they had such work ethic due to necessity given their statuses as kill-on-sight convicts. He quickly understood that their situation was a bit different from his own.

Although he was also being chased, his pursuers did not seek to kill him. At most, he would be dragged back to the temple and be forced to accept some sort of punishment before they would force him to take over the position they had prepared for him. These three, on the other hand, were fleeing for their lives.

Lin Xiao was a Diviner—and he was not just any Diviner. He was the most talented Diviner in the entire Temple, a talent that only appeared once every millennium. He was a diamond in the rough and they placed great value on him.

He had the ability to recognize a beast just with a simple glance. His ability exceeded what the common Diviner could do, allowing him to see any disguised Primordial Beast in a large crowd.

Because of this, he had instantly recognized Hei Gou as a beast, but then that same beast was traveling together with two humans. It was clear that they had a story to them, and this story had made Lin Xiao incredibly curious. Why would a beast, an untamed one to boot, travel with two humans?

His ability had not been able to see through neither Xue Wei, who was half human, nor Bai Tianyi, who was also not a beast.

Lin Xiao was a curious person by nature. To see two humans together with a beast that had not been tamed was something that stirred his curiosity, and he quickly understood that this group had secrets he had never understood before. He also had understood that they were on the bad side of both humans and beasts alike. It was clear that their situation was terrible, but it brought some sense of excitement to Lin Xiao, who had never before felt the same thrill of being hunted as he did now.

If Xue Wei knew what he was thinking, he would snort at him. The thrill of being hunted? He found it extremely annoying and uncomfortable to be constantly chased by everyone and their grandmother. All he wanted was a moment of peace.

The night went by in this fashion with Xue Wei creating batch after batch of medicinal pills while the other three cultivated.

The following morning when they left the room, they saw a whole group of people outside the door looking at them curiously.

Xue Wei was stunned, but Bai Tianyi quickly guessed their purpose. The entire night, Xue Wei had been concocting medicinal pills. His actions had caused the release of one wave of herbal medicinal scent after another, and each wave had been rather strong.

It was natural for others to have noticed it. When they sensed it and figured out its source, they had gathered in front of the room from which spewed the endless plumes of medicinal scents, curious as to who might be the one concocting pills.

When it came to it, alchemists were also rare in this world. Although they were far from as rare as inscription masters, they were still very rare and no one would be averse to meeting one.

When the four exited the room, the crowd started wondering who could be the alchemist. Instantly, Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi were disregarded.

Bai Tianyi because he was a child, Xue Wei because he looked like a woman. Then they looked at Lin Xiao and Hei Gou. Lin Xiao was a burly man with a lot of muscles, so to them he did not seem to be the kind of person who cultivated spiritual energy.

That left Hei Gou to be the one who had concocted medicine all night. They looked at him appraisingly. Although his real appearance was masked, his false appearance was still handsome and many started nodding their heads.

"This is a true genius," someone said with sagely pretense. "Not only is he young, but his talent for martial arts and the dao of medicine is high! He is truly a dragon amongst men!"

The praising words were said smoothly, as if praising him was the most natural thing to do. The man even looked expectantly at Hei Gou as if he expected a reward for his flattery.

Unfortunately, Hei Gou did not praise him. Instead, his face turned rather dark and he was about to say something when a glance from Xue Wei shut him up.

"Please excuse us, we need to go," Xue Wei said. His voice was feminine, melodious, and very pleasant to the ear.

Everyone looked with shock at this woman. Who was she? How did she have the right to speak when the men were talking?

Seeing their faces that told their inner thoughts directly, Xue Wei's face turned dark. "I said move it," 'she' said and her aura suddenly burst forth with the pressure of the seventh layer Ordinary Knight rank.

The many experts in the inn instantly felt weak in their knees and quickly got out of the way, letting the four pass through casually.

"No wonder that alchemist didn't talk when that chick looked at him," someone muttered, and the others nodded their heads. "He is definitely suffering from having such a fierce wife. I will never marry a woman with such a high cultivation base. I got to maintain my status at home!"

Although they had already made some distance from the crowd, Xue Wei and the others heard the words clearly, so clearly that Xue Wei almost stumbled, his face turning red from shame.

The other three did everything in their power to hold back their laughter. It was not as simple as they thought, so their shoulders were shaking, causing Xue Wei's face to turn from red to green. It was truly too humiliating but at the same time, he started to understand women and how they lived through firsthand experience.

After a while, the group made it to Heavenward City. Heavenward City was a border city. Once one walked through it, they would be at the center of the continent.

Although it was called the center of the continent, it did not contain only one kingdom. Even in the center, there were multiple kingdoms and empires. In fact, there were a full seven kingdoms and empires, with one situated in the middle of everything.

The kingdom in the middle of everything was called the Songtian Empire. This was the holy land for cultivators within this continent. It was also the place where most strived towards, whether it was livelihood or glory. It also happened to be the home of Prophet Lan.

The kingdom that Xue Wei and his friends were about to enter was called Jingling Kingdom. This kingdom was rumored to be the birthplace for the most beautiful women of all, and this was also the place where the most talented disciples of the Argent Moon Sect were discovered.

Heavenward City was the largest city Xue Wei had ever seen so far. Comparing the capital of Heping Kingdom to this was like comparing a lake to the sea.

A stream of merchants both entered and exited the city, endlessly. This was the busiest transport hub that led into the center of the continent, and thus the road was perpetually filled with all sorts of travellers.

The price to enter was a full twenty gold a person. This price was so outrageous that many could not help but grit their teeth in anger, but it was the entrance to the center of the continent. If they let everyone through, the center would be too crowded, so they could only make the poorest people stay away.

Xue Wei noticed that the guards enforcing the gate fee were not the only ones present; there were also a group of experts he recognized right away.

They were the flying experts that had chased them out of Cloudsoar City. They examined every single person trying to cross into the center. Their faces were grim and unpleasant, but they did not seem to find what they were looking for.

Xue Wei queued up together with his friends. He was as calm as one could be. If they could see through this disguise, then it was simply fate, but he still had faith in Lin Xiao's masks.

When they reached the gate, Xue Wei paid eighty gold coins to the guard. The flying experts looked at them, but they did not move to impede them at all.

In their eyes, those four were obviously a family on the road. This did not coincide with their target, which was a trio of male convicts.

After they made it through, Hei Gou heaved a heavy sigh of relief. He had been the worst off out of all of them in terms of nerves because he was prone to excessive worrying.